A little bit different approach
this evening. I want to tell you a story about
a man that the Lord took at least 8 or 9 years, probably 10 or
12 years to save. He didn't have a knowledge of
salvation. He did not know God. for this whole period of time,
but the Lord in His sovereign will, in His gracious act of
salvation towards an undeserving people that the Father put in
Christ before the foundation of the world, He worked in this
man. He used men and means and times
to work in this man who did not know God to teach him God. And
you know what He said at the end of it? I didn't know God. You ever said that? Have I ever
said that? Was there a time I didn't know
God and I thought I did? Was that me? That's how the Lord
saved people. This one just took a little over
a decade. That's a long time to be worshipping and be worshipping
something that defaults God, isn't it? That's an amazing thing. Pride.
Self-righteousness. That's the foundation of all
other sins. You know that? I'm right. God's wrong. I'm going to do
what I want. I know better. If God loosened his grip on us,
everyone wants to be pedophiles and homosexuals and murderers
and cannibals, and if he loosened it further, pay attention to
me, if he loosens it further, we would stand back and say,
I would never be a cannibal. I would never do those things.
That's worse, isn't it? It takes the power of God to
break a man and to put a new creature in him. This man I'm
going to tell you about, He met God's preacher. Had him in his
home for three years. Fed him. Took care of him. Didn't
talk to him. And then that preacher come to
dinner with him one time. Brought his friends with him, some other
believers. And he got to know him a little bit. He respected
him. He respected him greatly. Didn't hear a word he said. Didn't
know God, because he ate dinner with him. I knew a man one time,
an old fellow in my family. Any preacher that come by, he
would call you and tell you, preacher come by today. Well,
did he preach to you? It didn't matter where he pastored.
It didn't matter what gospel he believed in. He could have
said there was little green men with laser beams on their heads
coming and he'd have said, that's a preacher come talk to me. That
was important to him. Not the gospel that that man
brought. Just the fact that some preacher, that's why I like to
tell people I'm dealing precious stones or I'm retired or something.
They find out you're a pastor, oh, the tone of their voice changes
and everything goes an octave up. Somebody fancy. This man had those people, a
true prophet of God in his home for three years. Never talked
to him. When he did, he respected him and he didn't know God. And
then that prophet of God performed a miracle in his own house, right
in front of him. And he fell on his face and he
worshiped the man. The man to worship God's prophet
is not knowing God. To say, that's God's prophet.
I know that's God's prophet. I'm going to follow Him. I'm
going to support Him. I'm going to put my time, my
money behind Him. I'm going to sacrifice myself to support Him so He can
go preach the gospel to people. That's not following God. That
doesn't mean that you see God and you know Him. This miracle
was performed in his home. And in those other men that was
with him, these other believers, a great miracle of God's presence
was performed with them. He was eyewitness. An eyewitness. He was the very first one to
see this miracle. The physical act of God saving
his people as a picture of him being with us always and saving
his people for eternity. He stood right there with his
own flesh and eyes and looked at it. And he said, Oh, peace
be to you. Oh, that's good words, isn't
it? That's what believers say. I'm just going to say what they
say. Peace be to you. You want God to let that happen
in my house? I was so good, God performed
this miracle in my home. I'm going to tell you all about
it. Did he know God? He didn't know God. And then
you know what happened? God sent that same prophet to
him again. This time, he's going to save him. He's going to experience
salvation personally. Not in front of a whole household.
Not in front of a whole kingdom. Not in front of a whole mess
of people. So he can get the glory and everybody can see him.
This was private, one-on-one. He met that man in his heart.
A heart was exchanged. One-on-one. And at the end of
it, he said, now I know God. I got a new heart. I had a bad
heart. It takes the power of God to
say that. I was walking in false religion, worshipping a little
G-God for a long time, and you know what? My pride doesn't say
I knew God anyway. God took my pride away from me.
You know why? He saved me. He gave me a new
heart, and I forsake absolutely everything, and I worship God
only, and anything I have, He gave to me. I bow solely to Him,
and I serve Him. That sounds like a man that now
he knows God. 12 years didn't know nothing about God. He might
have been in His presence around His people. Might have been going
to church with them the whole time. A heart operation took
place. A new heart was put in there. A man was born again.
He knew God. The triune God moved on him.
They, all three of them, the Father purposed His salvation.
The blood of His darling Son was shed. That's a cost of admittance. That's a cost of Christ. And the Holy Spirit moved on
this man and gave him an understanding. He said, I know what I am and
I know who God is. He knew some stuff at the end of this. Every
believer that the Lord works in knows some stuff at the end
of it. It ain't complicated. It's simple. It's the simplicity
of Christ. Who I am, who He is, what He
accomplished for His people. How powerful He is. God, you can buy off a shelf.
This is the Almighty God, a sovereign God. You know who that man was? In a way, it's every one of his
children. If the Lord saves somebody, that's how he does it. Maybe on a different time frame.
Sometimes it's a whole lot quicker. Like that thief on the cross,
that was three hours, not three decades. Lord has to do it. That was our friend and brother
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Did you know that? Turn over
to Daniel. I had a good message. I thought
out of Daniel. We're going to look at the first four chapters
real quick. I promise I'll be brief. Lamentations, Ezekiel,
Daniel. If you get to Hosea and Joel,
you went too far. Daniel chapter 1. King Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon,
he went into Jerusalem and he won the war. Daniel chapter 4. He went into
Jerusalem and he won the war. He took over and he said, you
give me your best men. I mean, top notch. I want the
smartest you got. He got four of them. He got Daniel
and the three Hebrew children that so many bluegrass songs
like to sing about. Got four of them, and he kept
them in his house, and they ate his meat, the king's meat. Another
ten years, we might know something about that. Precious. This ain't
common. This is top choice. Nothing but
back straps and tenderloins. Choiceless meat. And he kept
them there for three years. Make sure they was well educated.
They learned the languages of the Chaldeans. and of the Babylonians. That's just south of Baghdad,
Iraq, Babylon is. Hanging Gardens of Babylon, where
the Tigris and the Euphrates split. So they had moved them
quite a ways. And they said, you're going to
learn everybody's language because you're smart. That's why I picked you. And
you're going to get to know a lot of things. And you're going to
be around my magicians and my astrologers. You're going to
pick up what you can. And then I'm going to meet with
you. This was three years. There was a long time there.
Daniel, he went to that chief eunuch. They became good buddies.
And he said, I don't want to eat the king's meat. Is it OK
if we eat pulse? Daniel didn't go up and say,
I ain't doing it. Did he? We've learned a whole lot from
that, couldn't we? Go ask him, is it OK if I don't eat the king's
meat because I don't want to? We can learn a lot from that.
But for three years, Daniel stayed there and his three Hebrew children
with him, his brothers, and the king took care of them. He fed
them, looked after them, and then finally, at the end of that
season, at that point in time, here's God's prophet living in
his same house for three years, unbeknownst to Nebuchadnezzar,
had no idea. And then he said, all right,
y'all come up and eat dinner with me. And we see here in chapter
1, verse 18, Daniel 1, verse 18. It says, Now at the end of the
days that the king had said he should bring them in, then the
prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar.
And the king communed with them. They sat down and had a long
dinner. They had a long talk about it. They got to know each
other. And among them was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael,
and Azariah. Therefore stood they before the
king, and in all manners of wisdom and understanding, that the king
inquired of them, he asked them, we called that sharpshooting
somebody. It was stump to chump. He said, it's the hardest questions
I can find, and see if I can get them tripped up. And no matter
what he asked them, he found them ten times better than the
magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm. That was
a big realm. They said that city was 60 mile
radius. That's 120 miles across. And
Daniel continued unto the first year of King Cyrus. He met God's
preacher, didn't he? He met his prophet, had him in
his house, had dinner with him, and was impressed by him. Greatly
impressed. Boy, this guy was sharp as a
whip. He's just some old Hebrew. Who
would have thought it? Boy, he's something. Did he know
God? Nebuchadnezzar didn't know God,
did he? He met his prophet, got pretty familiar with him, respected
him, but that didn't mean he knew God. And then this servant
of God did a miraculous thing. He performed a miracle that no
one else could perform. Nebuchadnezzar got a dream and
he said, I want all my magicians and all my astrologers and all
these people that can perform these things people thought were
miracles, these magicians, I want them all to come to me and they've
got to tell me this dream and then tell me what it means. And
they said, all right. So they gathered together and
they said, what was your dream, King? He said, no, I don't remember.
You ever dreamed and woke up, you couldn't remember what you
dreamed? You knew it was good, you might have knew it was bad. You
knew it was important or intense, but you woke up and you said,
what'd you dream? I don't know. Couldn't remember.
So he went to these, the best he had. And he said, you tell
me what my dream was. And then you tell me what it
means. And I said, well, are you crazy? Who could do that? And they said, you do it or I'll
kill you. I'll kill every one of you. And so Daniel and those
three Hebrew children were lumped in this group. They'd all been
together for three years. Been working, learning the language.
Gotta get alphabet work hammered out, don't we? And the news came
to Daniel by the eunuch, his buddy, the prince of the eunuchs.
And they said, the king's gonna kill every one of these folks.
If somebody don't interpret this, tell him what this dream was.
He don't even remember it. And interpret this dream. And Daniel
said, you tell him to hold on a minute. Let me sleep on it
and I'll come to him. And so Daniel went to sleep and
the Lord gave him that same dream. And so he comes to him there
in chapter 2 verse 37. And he interprets this dream. He tells him what this dream
was and then he tells him what the dream means. It says
in chapter 2 verse 37, Thou, O King, or the King of kings,
for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength,
and glory. And wheresoever the children
of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven
hath given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them
all. Thou art the head of this gold."
He'd had a dream. He told him what the dream was.
He said, you saw an image, didn't you? He said, I did see an image.
It's coming back to me now. And at the top was gold. And
a little bit lower on the breast was silver. And then it was iron.
And then it was iron mixed with clay by the feet. And he said,
yeah, that's exactly what I mean. And he said, you know what, King
Nebuchadnezzar, you're the king of all this stuff. That's what
that dream means. You're the head of gold. You're over the
birds. Brother Bob just read that. That ain't gonna be Nebuchadnezzar,
is it? He ain't over the fowl of the
air. He may have been king of that part of the country. Lord's
gonna fix that right quick, isn't he? He's gonna show him that's
Christ that's king of all those things. But he said, you're this
figure. That's the problem. And as time goes on, the next
generation is going to be your breast, the silver. And it's
not going to be as good as the gold. And then the next generation
to come, the next kingdom to come, it's going to be iron.
And then it's going to be iron mixed with clay, just like potter's
clay. And it's going to keep getting
worse and worse and worse. It's gonna degenerate and fall
away. He said, but King, in this picture,
you're that golden head. Boy, if you's a king, that'd
be good news. Boy, I like this guy. Oh, he told me how good
I was. I'm the big head. Not yet, you
ain't. Not yet, you're not. Then he
tells him the declaration of the salvation of God's saints.
He tells him how God saves people. There in verse 44, chapter 2
verse 44, and in the days of these kings, all this is going
to perish just like you will someday, shall the God of heaven
set up a kingdom. He's going to set it up. Which
shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left
to other people. But it shall break into pieces
and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Daniel didn't leave him off with
just an interpretation. He said, at the end of all this,
however the Lord plays this out for you individually, God will
set up his own kingdom. You're going to know who Christ
is. They'll come a day. Judgment's coming for every one
of us. Boy, he took this as such good
news. He didn't hear so much that last part, did he? There's
a whole lot of times I say stuff, and the second it comes out of
my mouth, right then, nothing else is heard. I can say, oh,
I'm paying $100 bills. And everybody says, did you hear
him say that that car was purple? It stops, don't it? Nebuchadnezzar
heard the good things, and he stopped. He didn't hear salvation
to the Lord. He just heard I'm the big golden
head. Boy, this proud man is swell enough to be even bigger,
wouldn't he? It was only skin deep for him, this good news.
This was a miracle that David preached the gospel to the king.
He knew this dream and interpreted it and told him what it was.
But the imagination of what Nebuchadnezzar had was not reality, did it?
What he thought all this was, wasn't what it really was. He
thought, I'm just going to escape hell. I'm going to be a big king.
I'm going to have health and wealth the rest of my life. Boy,
this is good news. He did not worship God. He did
not know God because God's prophet came and talked to him. Because
God's prophet performed a miracle in his very own home, he did
not know God. God hadn't done a work in him.
He only knew God's servant, didn't he? Look here in verse 46. Then
King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and worshiped Daniel.
Oh, that's happened so much in this day. People worship men. Men. Not who the man came to
tell you about. who the man is prophesying of,
salvations of the Lord. And it's forever. He will forever
keep his people. They shall not be taken from
his hand. Man, look at Daniel. Let's worship Daniel. And he
commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odors unto
him. And the king answered unto Daniel
and said, Of a truth it is that your God is a God of gods. That all them little g-gods,
your God's one of them. and is a lord of kings and a
revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldst reveal this secret."
You know how I know God? Because you did something fancy
in front of me. He didn't do a fancy work in
him. He didn't know God, but he saw a fancy work done in front
of him. He saw a miracle. Do we read about that in the
New Testament? Thousands upon thousands following Christ. Why?
Because there's some type of temporal benefit to it. There's
a good feeling with it. They got their bellies full.
Or they saw something neat happen. Oh, that guy was a leopard. He
ain't a leopard no more. He's blind. You can see the cataracts.
Now he can see. Something neat. What a shame. And he honored God's servant
nonetheless, didn't he? Look at verse 48. Then the king made
Daniel a great man and gave him many great gifts and made him
ruler over the whole province of Babylon, the chief of the
governors over all wise men of Babylon. And Daniel requested
of the king, he said, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego over the
affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel sat in the gate of
the king. He became the governor. He was
the head man over Babylon. And he put Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego, his three Hebrew brothers, said, you're going
to run this place for us. And the king said, that's right.
Boy, he saw something fancy in his house, didn't he? How fast
did it take for him to forget that? Could you imagine? If the Lord
sent a prophet to us, or an apostle, and they healed someone, we knew
right now. Bob, your arm has been hurt for
a long time and we all know it. What if somebody came down and
they touched your arm and it was just like you were 20 years old again?
Would we remember that past this evening? Did Nebuchadnezzar,
did he know God? Or did he just see a very strange
miracle out in front of him? Look at chapter 3, verse 1. Nebuchadnezzar
the king made an image of gold whose height was three-score
cubits in breadth, thereof six cubits, and he set it up in the
plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. The first thing he
did... Daniel, you're something special. I honor you. Not your
God, I honor you. I've seen your miracles. You're
going to run this place for me, but I'm going to go make me an
idol. And whenever these horns go off,
sound these trumpets, we're going to beat the drums, y'all hear
it, everybody's going to bow down to this idol I just made.
It's a sad thing for the Lord's prophet to tell somebody who
God is and for them to instantly look in their face and say, I'm
going to make me a gold idol. It ain't the first time, it ain't the
last time either. But he did and he said, Everyone's going
to bow to it. He set this golden image up and
he said everyone came around to the dedication of the image
which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. There was no mistake
in it. This was his idol. And he said
whoever doesn't bow when his horn goes off, bow to this golden
image. They're going to be cast in the
fiery furnace. All around Babylon, I've seen them. They got these
big old tall piers. It looks like a smokestack on
a factory here. And it shoots out the sides.
And they stack bricks in there. And they build a big fire. And
it pulls that dry, hot air across them bricks. And it's a kiln.
And so the more they throw in there, the hotter that fire gets.
And it's tapered up, so it's like a torch coming off the top
of it. The more you give it, the faster it goes. He said,
you're going to get thrown away in brick furnaces, the fiery
furnace. And these three Hebrew children, Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego, they did not bow when the horns went off. And
word got back real quick to the king. Said, you know them three
men you just sent over, Daniel sent over to charge Babylon?
They didn't bow when you told them to bow. The horns went off.
Ain't it funny how that works? I sat and thought about that.
I was eating lunch today, and I thought, now if they was bowing,
how'd they know that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego didn't
bow? I had a man go to a pastor one time, and he said, Pastor,
my dad, Paul Thacker, he said, Paul Thacker's at that funeral,
and he didn't close his eyes when he was praying. And he said,
Well, how did you know? Did you have your eyes closed?
If you had your eyes closed, you'd get to see him, huh? We're
like little children, ain't we? Run, tell on the other one. You
know why? We ain't shut up to sin. What's it to be shut up to sin?
Shut up to sin. That's to hush. Not have nothing
to say. Jacob going in to see Isaac.
And he said, you know what? You feel like Esau. This meat
smells like meat Esau makes, but my ears ain't gone yet. You
sound like Jacob. You think Jacob wants to say
another word? He doesn't, does he? That's the hardest thing
for a man to... We can't do it by ourselves.
It has to be an act of God. for a man to say, this whole
time I thought I knew God and I didn't. That's the most corruptible sin
I could ever admit to. I don't recommend you ever admit
sin to another man. You admit it to the Lord. You
speak to Him about it. Don't come to me and tell me
all your bad thoughts or anything. But if somebody came to me and
said, you know what the worst thing I've ever done in my whole life is? I've
got to tell somebody, I didn't believe God. That's the truth. I was proud. I was self-righteous. That's where it all stems from. But these three Hebrew children,
they didn't bow. Word got back and the king was told about it,
but instead of just saying, cast them into the fire, kill them,
I'll put an order out, that's the law, do it, execute it. Out
of a previous respect, he knew these men. Spent some time in
his house, I got to know them. He said, you bring them up to
me, and I want to give them another chance. Now that sounds awful
good, doesn't it? A king going out of his way to
have somebody come into his presence, defile him, defile his orders,
and they said, you know what? Bring him to me. I want to talk
to him. Let me give him another chance. To us, that sounds pretty
good. Now three Hebrew children were brought to the king. Chapter
3, verse 14. It says, And Nebuchadnezzar spake
and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?
Do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which
I have set up? Is this true? Now if ye be ready, that at what
time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut,
psaltery, the dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down
and worship the image which I have made, well, everything will be
fine. But if ye worship not, ye shall
be cast in the same hour into the midst of the burning fiery
furnace, and who is that God that shall deliver you out of
my hands? What God do you have that can
take you out of the hands of me, the mighty king? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we go back
a few years, don't we? We are not careful to answer
thee in this matter. If it be so, our God, whom we
serve, not that we just know about, that we serve, is able
to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, He will deliver
us out of thy hand, O King. If the Lord's pleased to deliver
us out of your hand, He's gonna do it, and you're gonna see it
happen. But if not, be it known unto thee, if the Lord chooses
out of His goodwill and pleasure not to do that, to let us perish
in this fiery furnace, O King, that we will not serve thy gods
nor worship thy golden image which thou hast set up. They
said, I always thought that was nice. It wasn't a small matter.
They weren't careful to answer. That's a mighty, powerful king
about to cast you in a burning furnace. The Lord strengthened
them and gave them faith to trust Him and to trust His sovereign
will, His decrees. And they said, I ain't bowing
to your God. You can get as mad as you want.
I ain't offending my Lord to do so. He got pretty mad. Nebuchadnezzar cast them into
that fire. That fire heated seven times hotter than it's designed
to be, and he got some strong men of his army to bind them
up. He said, you go get real strong ones to tie them and throw
them in. And they threw those three Hebrew
children in, and that fire was so hot and a big rush to keep
the king happy. They didn't want to get chucked
in there too. It burned up those mighty men that threw them in.
And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were sitting there in that fire.
And that king looked down. It says in verse 24, And then
Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished when he looked in, and rose up
in haste and spake, and said unto his counselors, Did not
we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered,
said unto the king, True, O king. He answered, said, Lo, I see
four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have
no hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. The king saw the fourth in there
with them, and he called for them to come out. How did he
know that that looked like the Son of God? The Lord's been working
in them, isn't He? The king saw the fourth one in
there, and he called for them to come out, to come out to him,
just the opposite of what he just decreed, wasn't it? That
king's heart was turned on a dime. He said, cast him into the fire.
A minute and a half later, get them out of the fire. Come to
us. Who changed that king's mind?
His heart's in the hand of the Lord, isn't it? He was astonished
and everyone around them was astonished. What a miracle! These
men came out, they were no longer bound, their hair wasn't singed,
they didn't even smell like smoke. What if we saw that in our day? Does he know God? He still doesn't
know God, does he? Seeing God working His people,
seeing these children saved by the fiery furnace, what a miracle!
What a miracle having that dream interpreted to him after hearing
God and seeing God in action. That's a whole lot of knowledge,
isn't it? He knew that looked like the Son of God sitting in
there. Well, he knows something now. Does knowledge save a man?
No, but if a man is saved, you'll have some knowledge of what happened,
won't you? Because you're taught of God. Now he's going to experience
salvation. Daniel chapter 4. If we read
this, the paragraph, the chapter division come in. After a lot
of other versions, I could tickle your ears with some knowledge
of Syriac versions and all that stuff. But this ends here in
verse 3, and then the paragraph begins in verse 4. And so it
says in verse 29 of chapter 3, Therefore I make a decree that
every people, nation, and language which speak anything amiss against
the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in
pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill, because there
is no other God that can deliver after this sort. He put a decree
out. Then the king promoted Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar
the king, unto all the people, nations and languages that dwell
in all the earth, peace be multiplied to you. I watched God save somebody
right in front of my eyes. I thought it good to show the
signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought towards me. God saved His people from a fiery
furnace and He did it on my land. My image, my God idol was stacked
up right behind that furnace. I was put on a big show and the
Lord thought so highly of me that He came down here and did
this miracle right in front of me and let me watch it. How great are His
signs and how mighty are His wonders. His kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom and His dominion is from generation to generation. Look
what He did for me. You know what happened that night?
Nebuchadnezzar went home and he went to bed. And he had another
dream. And this time, God came to him.
God did a heart work in him. Told him with a heart work what
was going to happen. He still had a few years left. It says in verse
4, I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest in my house and flourishing
in my palace. Everything was fine. I saw a
dream which made me afraid and the thoughts upon my bed and
the visions of my head troubled me. Therefore I made a decree
to bring in all the wise men of Babylon before me that they
might make known unto me the interpretation." Who did he call to come and interpret
this? We're going to get Daniel in here? I've watched him interpret
my dreams before and he was right. Shall I call Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego? They know God. They were standing with him in
a fiery furnace that had just come out. He still called his Ben,
didn't he? Look down at verse 8. But at
the last thing to call, At the last, he called Daniel, and he
came in before him whose name was Belteshazzar, according to
the name of my God, and in whom the spirit of the holy gods,
and before him I told the dream." Nebuchadnezzar brought Daniel
in last, bottom of the barrel, and he still called him by the
name that his little G-God gave him, Belteshazzar. O Belteshazzar, verse 9, Master
of the magicians, because I know that the Spirit of the Holy God
is in thee, and no secret trouble with thee, tell me the visions
of my dream that I have seen, and the interpretation thereof. This man had published peace
where there was no peace. His mind and this outward declaration
was that God blessed him because he was king. He'd seen these
miracles, had his interpretations, and he still didn't know God.
And now he's had another dream. Daniel's the last one to come.
His name's changed because of his little God still. In verse
34, Daniel tells him, I'm sorry, I wrote that down wrong. Verse 10, I'm sorry. Chapter
4, verse 10. Thus were the visions of my head
and my bed. I saw and behold a tree in the
midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great. The tree grew,
and it was strong, and the height thereof reached into the heaven,
and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth. The leaves
thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat
for all. And the beast of the field had
shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the boughs
thereof, and all flesh was fed of it. And I saw in the vision
of my head upon my bed, and behold, a watcher, an unholy one, came
down from heaven. And he cried aloud and said thus,
Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches, shake his leaves.
and scatter his fruit, and let the beast get away from under
it, and the fowls from this branches. Nevertheless, leave the stump
of his roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass
in the tender grass of the field, that's where it's left, and let
it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the
beast in the grass of the earth. Let his heart be changed from
man's and let it be a beast's heart be given unto him, and
let seven times pass over him." That was his dream. He was this
great big tree, wasn't he? And the Lord's coming in. The
Holy One came and hewed down the tree, but the stump was left,
and the roots was left, and he became like an animal. He had
the heart of a beast that he would graze for seven times. That means seven years. Verse
19, Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was astonished
for one hour. His thoughts troubled him. The
king spake and said, Belteshazzar, let not the dream or the interpretation
thereof trouble thee. Don't let this get you down.
You just tell me. We've been together a long time. Belteshazzar
answered. Daniel answered and said, My
lord, the dream be to them that hate thee, and the interpretation
thereof to thine enemies." He's saying this dream, this interpretation,
I would wish that this was to your enemies. This is going to
happen to you. The means that the Lord is going
to use to bring you to Him is going to be rough. I wouldn't
wish this on any man. He says in verse 20, the tree
that thou sawest, which grew, was strong, whose height reached
the heavens, and the sight thereof into all the earth, whose leaves
were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat, for
all under the beast of the field dwelt among all those branches,
and the fowls of heaven and their habitation. It is thou, O King,
that art grown and become strong, for thy greatness is grown and
reacheth under the heaven and thy dominion to the end of the
earth. This is you. You're strong. You're prideful.
And you think you've got something to be proud of. You've got a
great dominion. And the Lord's going to hew it
down. It says in verse 24, and this is the interpretation, O
king, and this is the decree of the Most High, which has come
upon my Lord, the King. He said, this isn't me telling
you. This is what God's going to do, a work in you. Verse 25,
that they shall drive thee from men. And thy dwelling shall be
with the beast of the field. Who's they? The Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost. The thrice holy God. The triune
God. In the work of the purpose of
the Father, Christ purchasing you, shedding His blood for you,
and the Holy Ghost doing this work in you. You ain't gonna
be sitting on a pew. And the Lord will come to your
heart to save you. He will cast you into a field away from men. And they shall make thee to eat
grass as the oxen. And they shall wet thee with
the dew of heaven. And seven times shall pass over
thee till thou know that the Most High ruleth the kingdom
of men and giveth it to whomsoever He will. You think you've built
this kingdom. For seven years you're going to walk around like
a beast of the field. until God is pleased to let you know that
He's the ruler of all creation. If you were anything, He gave
it to you. You ain't nothing but grass. And you know what
happened? Verse 28, And all this came upon
the king Nebuchadnezzar, and at the end of twelve months he
walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. For twelve months
Daniel told him these things. And you know what happened? I
bet he was scared that night. And he went home and he had some emotions.
But emotions don't do it. Emotions don't make you know
God. He went home and he felt all warm and fuzzy, or he was
sad, or he was convicted. It didn't matter. Then the next
morning he woke up, and he wasn't quite as convicted. And then
two months went by, and now it's kind of, aren't we going fishing
next week? Then ten months went by. Well, that was old Daniel. What does Daniel know? The Lord
let this go twelve months. Let him go twelve months. Verse 30, and the king spake
and said, Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house
of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of
my majesty? All this time, this prophet living
in his house, preaching to him, eating dinner with him, communing
with him, interpreting signs and dreams and wonders with him,
preaching to him, watching those three Hebrew children come out
of the fire, Daniel pleading with him. He said, King, I wish
the Lord wouldn't do this to you. He told him down in verse
27, He said, Count and accept one of thee, break off thy sins
by righteousness, and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor.
And maybe, if it may be the lengthening of thy tranquility. He said,
turn from this pride, turn from this sin, turn from you. Everything you think, everything
you know, everything you touch, turn from it, and turn to God,
and maybe, just maybe, the Lord will give you tranquility. He
may not bring this to pass on you. They don't care for me.
They don't want to see this happen. It's going to hurt. You'll be
happy at the end of it. We know the trials that sent
our brothers and sisters in Christ. The Lord sent those. And what's
our instinct? Oh, I pray that they're healed
quick. I pray this ends fast. I pray
those children grow up strong. How foolish we are. We ask a
miss, James said. We don't know what we're asking
for. Though we weep with them. What the Lord's going to do is
right. How the Lord chooses, it's going to be perfect. Perfect. Is that the way you'd pick it?
Nope. Is that the way I'd want to do things? Uh-uh. And His
wisdom and His power and His perfection, how He saves His
people is perfect. It is right. Righteous. Because He's holy. That's the
act of our holy nature. This had to come to pass. And
the Lord let it set 12 months. And right as He had all that
pride, those waves of self-righteousness come back. Oh, look at all I
did. Look how good I was. I was drawing
my O's out. Look how good. Look at all these
things I built. Verse 31, While the word was
in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven saying, O
king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken. The kingdom is
departed from thee. Gone. Verse 32, "...and they shall
drive thee from men, and from thy dwellings shall be with the
beast of the fields, and they shall make thee to eat grass
as the oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou
know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and it
giveth it to whomsoever He will." You will know the salvation to
the Lord seven times. That's seven years, but that's
perfection, isn't it? The child of God perfectly knows
God saves His people. He doesn't have to know. He doesn't
think, well, I think He saves them perfectly if they let Him.
No. They're taught of God. They're taught perfectly. In
the same hour, verse 33, was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar,
and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his
body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown
out like eagle's feathers, and his nails like bird claws. And
at the end of the days, once this declaration of the Lord
to save his child and the means he chose to do it in perfection
was completed. Not before, not six years, not
seven and a half years. At the end of the day is the
Lord prescribed in perfection. I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine
eyes unto heaven. Did he look down at heaven? They
said, Christ is wanting to save you. Won't you reach down and
help him? Did he look out? Did he look
out to heaven? Well, I can head over there anytime
I want. That's a flat road. Oh, it's so wide and nice and
paved. I can do that next week. He lifted
his eyes to heaven. He was subdued. He was brought
down, this mighty king. And mine understanding returned
to me, and I blessed the Most High. And I praised and honored
Him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion,
and His kingdom is from generation to generation." We'll probably come back here,
I hope, several times in years to come. But the Lord taught
this man something. Just as He told Moses. Moses
said, I'm going to go down and tell these children everything
He told me. But they're going to say, who sent me? He said, you tell them, I
am. He's an eternal God. This isn't
a temporary thing. He's from eternity to eternity.
His power is from eternity to eternity. His salvation is from
eternity to eternity. His love is everlasting. He was
convinced of that. Isaiah said, In the year that
King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord setting upon a throne high and
lifted up. And his train filled the temple.
Above it stood the seraphims. One had six wings, twain he covered
his face, twain he covered his feet, and twain he did fly. And
one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts, who the whole earth is full of his glory. He learned
that that eternal God was holy. He wasn't. Nebuchadnezzar wasn't,
like he thought he was. God was. That eternal God was. And he saw that man was nothing. It says in verse 35, And all
the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he
doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or
say unto him, What doest thou? Man is nothing. Isaiah said,
Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted
as a small of the dust. in the balance. Behold, he taketh
up every isle a very little thing. The dust in the balance. If you
had a weight scale and a little piece of dust landed on it, you
wouldn't clean it off. You know how when the sun comes
through a window and you see little floaties? You know what most
dust is? It's your skin. How appropriate
is that? That's what man is. There's something
floating through the air. Just avoid it. You just walk
around that light a little bit. Don't have to breathe it. Don't
pay no mind to it. That's all we are. He knew that. He had learned that. There in
verse 16, it says, Let his heart be changed from a man's, and
let a beast's heart be given unto him, and let it seven times
pass over him. Oh, he thought he had a heart
of flesh, didn't he? Why? Because it beat. He did this. I must
be alive. I can breathe in and out. I must
know God. I ask you, I ask myself, have I had the heart of a beast?
That's what we're born with. A sinner is a precious thing. Did you know that? Everybody
sins. We're born of Adam. There's no
question of that from the youngest to the oldest that come out of
the womb speaking lies. And those sweet little old folks that just
ain't got the energy to go out and sin no more, they're still
sinning. But for someone to know they're a sinner, to know that
all they are is sin, that takes an act of God. The power of God
working through the Holy Ghost and the preaching of the Gospel
in their people to know that you're not Christ. He is all
righteousness and I'm nothing but sin. That's a precious thing.
Sinners are rare. That's a rare thing. You know
what Nebuchadnezzar said? I had a heart of a beast. Have
you had a heart of a beast? I'm a drop in the bucket. I'm
a dust on a scale. And he saw the sovereignty of
God. He said, none can stay his hand and say to him, what doest
thou? You know what stay his hand means? You ever had a little
child go to reach for something and you go, don't touch that. He's pushed
her hand back. You cannot stay the hand of the Lord. That's an important thing. Why?
We're kept in his grip. We are kept in his hand. He shall
not lose one. That's eternal, isn't it? That's
not today. That's grace for today. That's mercy today. We rejoice
in that today. Oh, I'm thankful. That'll get me through to tomorrow.
What's tomorrow's good news going to be? Those that Christ died
for cannot be taken away from Him. What about the day after
that? You're secured forever. None can stay His hand. That's
saying to Him, what are you doing? Why did you save Kevin Thacker?
You could have done a whole lot better than that. If I'm in His
hand, I'm there forever. There forever. God that thundereth
marvelously with His voice, great things He doeth which we cannot
comprehend. For He saith to the snow, be
thou on the earth. Likewise to the small rain and the great
rain of His strength. He sealeth up the hand of every man that
all men may know His work. He seals our hands. Our hands
are slapped back. His aren't. Tomorrow I'm going to get up
and I'm going to go to get some stuff changed to oil my car.
I might, I might not. If the Lord speaks it, it's done.
When He wills, as He wills. None can stay His hand. That's
in creation. We're in a big drought. Water's
going away. Because there's a high-pressure
zone. Why? His hands pushing on them. The Lord chose to. Every morning
I see it on the news and I think, the Lord's squeezing us a little
bit. Just as He sees fit at His right. In Providence. Through
that Providence and through the Providence working in His people.
None can stay His hand in salvation. I don't think so-and-so ought
to go to church. He ain't ready yet. Huh. Hogwash. The Lord saves
who He will, when He will, how He will. and none can take Him
out of His hand. He preserves us forever. And
He gets all the glory for that, doesn't He? If I had a heart
of a beast, and I was just walking around eating grass and acorns,
and walking around on all fours, and the Lord gave me a mind,
turned the lights on, now I see His holiness. I see His sovereignty,
His power. Man has nothing to glory in,
does he? He says in verse 36, "...and at the same time my reason
returned unto me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my honor,
my brightness returned to me, and my counselors and my Lord
sought unto me." Everything come back to him. That stump was hewed
down. Now that tree is growing the way the Lord wants it. He's
got it roped off. And I was established in my kingdom,
and excellent majesty was added unto me. Now I, once I got everything
back I had, now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the
King of Heaven, my Lord, all whose works are truth, and His
ways judgment, and those that walk in pride He is able to abase." The Lord restores a sinner. He
brings them to nothing. I mean, the pillow's wet, the
bed's too short, and the blanket won't cover you. Brings you to
misery. And then He lets you see our
Redeemer. The person and work of Christ.
What He's accomplished forever for His people. In and for them.
And all pride's been removed. And you say, my heart was black.
All those years. Oh, I thought I was God's. Told everybody I was. Didn't
know Him from Adam. I had His prophet in my house. Come over and eat dinner with
me. And I didn't know God. I saw God save people. I saw
people come out of false religion and just give it up and say everything
I've ever done in my whole life is wrong. And I said, God saved
that person. And I didn't know God until God
put a heart of a beast in me and let me know about it. And
then He gave me my understanding. He gave me a heart that's made
after Him. Put Christ in me. Reveal Christ in me. And I worshipped
Him. And I said, you know what? That
proud person I think needs to get hewn down and knocked down
a peg or two. Who's able to do that? Man ain't. Salvation is
of the Lord. Amen.