Let's open our Bibles to the
book of Daniel, chapter two. Well, if you have read chapter
two of the book of Daniel, you might ask the question, how in
the world is a man gonna get through 49 verses in one message? And I've got a simple answer
for you, he ain't. Maybe bad grammar, but that makes
the point that I'm not gonna try to get through 49 verses
in one message. But a lot of these verses really
are the story of Nebuchadnezzar's dream. So my plan is to get through
it in two messages, but we'll just see how it goes. The Lord
will lead us as we go through. I've divided it into two parts
the title of the message is the kingdom that stands forever And
this is part one The kingdom that stands forever, but before
we start in verse 1. I want you to jump to verse 44
Anytime you see a passage of scripture like this That Has
to do with dreams and visions as the Lord used that medium
that way of communication at that time to Communicate his
sovereign will his his way of doing things Anytime you see
that there's always a key that unlocks the mystery and the key
that unlocks the mystery of Nebuchadnezzar's dream here is verse 44 And that
forms the backbone of this chapter. And he's talking about, and in
the days of these kings, Nebuchadnezzar's dream is about kings and kingdoms,
empires, human empires. Human kings, human kingdoms.
And he says, and in the days of these kings, or throughout
the history of these kingdoms that Nebuchadnezzar dreamed about,
It says, shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom? Now there's
man's kingdoms, and then there's God's kingdom. The God of heaven,
understand, not humans now, not a king of the, but the God of
heaven, he shall set up a kingdom. He's building a kingdom, and
he says, look here, which shall never be destroyed. That'll never, there'll never
be any. He says, and the kingdom shall
not be left to other people. What he's saying there is this
kingdom will never fall under the domination of other people.
Nobody else is going to come and take this kingdom. Nobody
else is going to, this is the kingdom of the king of kings. This is the kingdom of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And nobody's going to take it
from him. Not going to fall to other people. but it shall break
in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, all these human kingdoms,
and it shall stand forever. So in the end, this forever kingdom,
this eternal kingdom of Christ will crush all the other kingdoms
and finish them off, is what he's saying literally, and come
through it all standing strong and eternal. Now in light of
that, This chapter, chapter 2 of the book of Daniel, sets forth
the power of God in the salvation, the eternal salvation, and preservation
of His people. It also speaks of the giving
of the gifts of faith and wisdom and knowledge to men like Daniel
and his brethren, as well as God's sovereign power and will
in prophetic visions and His providence. This is one great
example of the fact that our God declares the end from the
beginning. These things that God reveals
through this dream that he gave to this heathen, unbelieving
king, idolatrous king, these things that God reveals to him
are not things that might happen if certain things will fall into
place or certain people will cooperate or not cooperate. That's not what it's about. These
are the things that God works after the counsel of his own
sovereign will. And I take comfort in that, don't
you? When we think about the death of our loved ones, I know,
I told Harold and Nancy that when Brother Elmer, before he
died, that we know that he's not going to die, my mother didn't
die, any, Brother Ed's not going to die, Sister Jenny's not going
to die, one second later or one second before the Lord has determined
it to be done. Is that right? And you say, well,
you know, I might be able to see that when it comes to an
individual dying, but here we're talking about empires on a world
scale. That's what this dream is about.
This is about the Babylonian Empire, the Medo-Persian Empire,
the Greek Empire, the Roman Empire, empires. Well, where are they
today? Where are they today? Here's
Judah, the people of God under the covenant of Sinai. They're
in exile. But even though this exile did
bring, you know, and think about this now. And in the Bible, when
you think about time now, don't think about just moments in time
necessarily when we're trying to scale down God's time. Think
about spans of time. But this exile that they're in
right now actually brought an end to the nation Israel as it
was established at Sinai in its former glory. Of course, the
most glorious days of Israel was under David and Solomon.
They had a few times after that, a little bit under Hezekiah,
a little more under Josiah, but their glory was already gone.
This is the beginning of what we might look at as a time of
change, a transitional period of time. It was a time of preparation. Daniel called it a time of indignation
because he's talking about God's righteous indignation. God bringing
punishment down on his people for their sin. But it would also
be a time of expectation. Expecting what? Expecting the
Messiah. The Lord Jesus Christ. God has
not forsaken his people which he foreknew. The Holy Spirit
inspired the Apostle Paul to write that in the book of Romans.
the scepter would not totally depart now you might look at
this you say well here the scepter has departed there's really no
king in israel or in judah in jerusalem but yet the scepter
this is a transitional period of time the scepter would not
totally depart from judah until shiloh come they came back from
this captivity There was a leader, he wasn't technically a king,
his name was Zerubbabel, and then there were other leaders,
and then there were leaders outside of Judah, but it did not totally
depart until Shiloh come, and the true remnant of God would
return to him, to Christ, under the headship of Christ. There
are three passages in the book of Daniel that form the backbone
of and the ribs of biblical prophecy. And right here's one of them
in chapter two. The next one is in Daniel chapter nine. And
then another one later on in Daniel, well, Daniel chapter
seven and then Daniel chapter nine. So this is really important. This chapter begins to show how
no empire of human origin would defeat God's purpose. No empire
of man is eternal. And I think that's a good lesson
for us in these United States. Because, you know, sometimes
because of our pride as Americans, and don't get me wrong, I love
America, I love our country. But sometimes we live life as
if this is it, this is utopia. And I know people complain about
the government and all that. I do too now. I do too. You say,
well, it's about to come to an end. Well, someday it's going
to come to an end. Now it is, maybe we hate to think
of it coming to an end in our lifetime, but it's coming to
an end. No government, no system of man is going to last forever. Not even the physical nation
Israel will last forever. He told them that. But God's
kingdom, the kingdom of Christ will last forever. Now where's
our hope? Where's our citizenship? Here
we see two reasons that God placed Daniel in this heathen court.
You remember in chapter one, that's what God did, brought
him to this heathen court, gave him favor with the king. You
think about that. A man of God gains favor with
a king who hates God. I'll tell you something, only
God himself could work that one out. But that's what happened. But here's two reasons that Daniel
gained favor with this heathen court. Number one, that he, that
God, in using Daniel and his friends, might preserve Judah
until Shiloh comes. Judah was not going to be destroyed
until Shiloh comes, until the Messiah come. And yes, it took
about 500 more years. And then when they came back,
you'd say 400, 430. Secondly, And this is important for chapter
two here. To show to the heathen kings
of this world and the Gentile nations in general that the kingdoms
of this world are temporal, they're fleeting, they will not endure. Only the kingdom of God will
endure. Let's read a portion of this scripture. Here's the
dream and the decree of Nebuchadnezzar. It says in verse one, in the
second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams
wherewith his spirit was troubled and his sleep break from him."
This is God working here. Don't ever forget that. This
isn't a piece of bad meat that he ate that day that's giving
him this dream that's bothering him and troubling him. This is
God working. The king's heart is in the hand
of the Lord as the rivers of water. He turneth it whither
so ever he will. Proverbs 21.1. And his sleep broke from him. That
is, he couldn't find it. He couldn't sleep. Verse 2. Then
the king commanded to call the magicians and the astrologers
and the sorcerers and the Chaldeans for to show the king his dream.
So they came and stood before the king. What's he doing here? He's seeking the wisdom of men.
He's seeking the wisdom. He wants answers, but he's seeking
it in the wrong place. He's seeking the wisdom of the
world. Here's the brain trust of Babylon. Who are they? Magicians.
Those are the wonder workers. They could amaze you with their
sleight of hand. Astrologers, they read the stars. They were pantheists. They thought
God was in everything, you know. God's in that lamp there. God's
in that seat there, you know. That's what kind of people they
are. We have them today. God's in the trees. Don't cut
down that tree. You know, worship that tree.
That's the kind of people they were. The sorcerers, what are
they? They were those who claimed that
they could manipulate evil powers. They could manipulate the powers
of darkness. And then the Chaldeans. They
were the scribes or the priests who spoke the Syriac language
or the Aramaic language, the language of the world, the language
of diplomacy, the common language, but they were also priests. They
spoke the common language. Well, here he is, the brain trust
of Babylon, such is false religion. They think they have the answers,
but they don't. Look at verse 3, it says, And
the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit
was troubled to know the dream. And then spake the Chaldeans
to the king in Syriac, that's the Aramaic language. You know,
that's the language Christ spoke when he walked this earth, Aramaic. And it was a common language.
And listen to what they say. First off, now look at verse
4, they say, O king, live forever! Now tell me your dream. Tell
thy servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.
It's interesting in the original Bible, this from here all the
way over to Daniel chapter seven, the end of chapter seven, it's
written in Aramaic and not in the Hebrew language. What's happening
here? Well, there's a change from the
Hebrew to the Aramaic because God's speaking to the world.
He's not just speaking to the Jews here now. He's speaking
to the whole world, not only to the Hebrews. You see, what
we have here is God's revelation. that this gospel message, this
message of his power and his grace and his mercy ultimately
in Christ is not just for the Jews, but it's for the Gentiles. And my friend, we ought to rejoice
every day because of that. This is not just a message that's
given to one group, but God has a people out of every tribe,
kindred, tongue, and nation he's going to say through his son.
Israel has gone into Babylonian captivity, and God's taken the
scepter out of the line of David for a little while and put it
into Gentile hands, but only for a short period of time, it
would not totally leave Judah, according to God's timetable,
and the scepter will stay in Gentile hands until God takes
it back. And let me read to you what one
old writer wrote. Here's how he put it. He said,
when God takes that scepter out of Gentile hands and brings it
back to Judah, When he does, nail-pierced hands will take
that scepter because it's God's intention that Jesus Christ reign
forever and ever. Isn't that something? And his
kingdom will be worldwide. God's elect, both Jew and Gentile. But I want you to know something
else here about this verse four. Oh, King, live forever. That's
the empty words of man. That's the vain words of man. Oh, King, live forever. Neither
man's desire nor his efforts will make it so. I can look you
in the face and say, live forever until we're both out of breath,
and it won't happen. I can think you'll live forever
or I'll live forever in man's terms, on man's grounds, in man's
way, but it will not happen. I want you to turn with me to
2 Timothy chapter 1. Living forever. That's what we
want. We hate the thought of death.
We hate the idea of death. We hate the process of death.
Death is the result of sin, our fallen Adam. We've been dying
ever since. We talk about it the way of all
flesh. We say the graveyard's full.
Tomorrow we're burying my mother, my dear mother. Someday we'll
be burying your families. Someday we'll be burying me,
be burying you. Death, death, death. Sometimes
we even joke about it. I think we have to do that in
order just to put up with it and live with it. What about
this? Oh, King, live forever. Boy,
you fellas are good to me. You want me to live forever.
Empty, vain words. Listen to the words of God, though,
in 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 8. Listen to these words that
have weight. These words that have merit.
These words that are anything but empty and vain, but have
power. He says, be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our
Lord, the true and living God, not a dead God, not a dead man
talking to another dead man, nor of me, his prisoner, but
be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and his grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the
world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of
our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death. Now, we can listen. He's abolished
death and hath brought life and immortality. Living forever,
to light, where? Through the gospel. The good
news of salvation, conditioned on Christ, fulfilled by Christ. These are not empty words. These
are not vain words. How do we know this? Because
Jesus Christ who died on the cross, who faced death himself
because of our sin charged to him. He was made sin. He faced
death. He faced the wrath of his father.
He faced eternal death and damnation and alienation from God. He said,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He faced that. And
he died shedding his blood as the full payment of all the sins
of his sheep. And he was buried. But he arose
again the third day. He arose from the dead. And now
he lives forever. He lives forever to make intercession
for us and to bring us to himself. And
though we have to face physical death for a very good reason,
because these old bodies must die. Paul wrote it in 1 Corinthians
15, we shall all be changed. These old vile bodies. I told someone, I said that the
most difficult thing in watching my mother in these last few months
was seeing her mind go. And I knew that if she lived
long enough, she was going to come to a time where I would
walk into that nursing home and she wouldn't even recognize me,
or any of her children, or any of you. And I hated to think
of her coming to that point. So I prayed, Lord, Lord, take
her home. And I know some of you all have
faced that with your parents, where they have lost their minds.
And I tell you, it takes the grace of God for you to go through
it. But you see, there's a change. There's a change. And it's a
real change. It's not just a pipe dream. It's
not just, oh, King, live forever, because we want to make sure
we're on your good side. Jesus Christ lives. Think about
this. To have immortality, to live
forever, we must have righteousness. That's what it takes. Did you
know that? That's what the Bible teaches. You cannot have immortality without
righteousness. To have righteousness for sinners,
now, for sinners to have righteousness, there must be death. Did you
know that? The scripture says we have faith
in His blood for the righteousness of God. For a sinner to have righteousness,
there must be death. Sin must be dealt with. Sin must
be put away. Sin must be paid for. And to
have such a death, there must be a glorious, God-appointed,
able, willing person. And he's our king. Not Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar couldn't do it. The president of the United States
couldn't do it, even the best one. Even if you voted for the
one you wanted, he got in. He couldn't do it either. No
man can do it. Look at verse five now, back
in Daniel 2. The king answered, verse five,
now they said, tell us your dream and we'll show you the interpretation.
Well, the king answered and said to the Chaldeans, the thing is
gone from me. Now, I believe, This is translated
properly, but I believe that if you don't think about it right,
it's kind of misleading. Nebuchadnezzar is not saying
here that I've forgotten the dream. That's what I thought
when I first read it. But doing a little research,
he's not saying I forgot what it is. We think about that. It's all possible. I mean, I
have dreams all the time. I wake up and can't remember them. But
that's not what Nebuchadnezzar is saying. The thing is gone
from me. What he's talking about here
is his decree. And he says, this decree is set
in concrete. It's gone out from my mouth and
I can't take it back. Now you see that in the book
of Daniel. You remember when the king makes a decree. You
remember when he made the decree to build the golden statue and
he couldn't take it back? And that's what he's saying.
This is a decree that's gone from me and here it is. And he's
describing what it is. If you will not make known unto
me the dream, if you can't tell me, Nebuchadnezzar said, I know
what it is. But here's my decree and it's
gone out and it's set in concrete. If you will not make known unto
me the dream with the interpretation thereof, you shall be cut in
pieces and your houses shall be made a dunghill. So Nebuchadnezzar's saying, no,
I'm not gonna tell you the dream, you tell me the dream. Now if
you can't do it, if you can't tell me the dream and interpret
it, then I'm gonna kill you. Now the first thing we think
about is, well, that doesn't seem fair, does it? Well, hold on to this a moment.
Let's read on. He says in verse six, but if
you show the dream and the interpretation thereof, you shall receive of
me gifts and rewards and great honor. Therefore show me the
dream and the interpretation thereof. And they answered again
and said, let the king tell his servants the dream and we will
show the interpretation of it. The king answered and said, I
know of certainty that you would gain the time. You're just trying
to buy time. That's what he's saying. Because
you see the thing has gone from me. You see the decree that I
have. You're just trying to buy time here because I've already
made this decree that you're gonna be killed if you can't
tell me the dream. But if you will not make known unto me the
dream, there is but one decree for you. There's only one thing
left for you, for you have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak
before me till the time be changed. Therefore, tell me the dream,
and I shall know that you can show me the interpretation thereof. He withheld the dream from him.
You know what God's doing here? He's using the king to put these
false advisors to the test. He's getting ready to show his
power and his glory, but not through these false preachers,
these false prophets, these false advisors. He's gonna do it through
Daniel, his prophet. And they spoke the truth. They
said this, they said, no man could know and interpret that
dream. No man could know that. No man
can do this. They're telling the truth. No
man can do what you're telling us to do. Well, who could do
it? There's only one who could do
it, and that's God. Only God can do that. What's
the issue here? Well, here it is. Man cannot
do what God alone can do and does do. Think about it. There's a verse
in Ecclesiastes chapter seven and verse 20. It says, for there
is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not.
There's not a just man on earth that doeth good and sinneth not.
And yet, back over in Genesis, well, all through the Old Testament,
God said, this one's just, that one's just. He said in Genesis
chapter six and verse nine, or verse nine, he says, Noah was
a just man. And perfect in his generations.
And Noah walked with God. Well, is there a contradiction
in scripture? No. What's he saying in Ecclesiastes
7? What's the whole theme of Ecclesiastes?
Man without God. Man without Christ. Man without
grace. Man without the blood of Christ. Man without the righteousness
of Christ. What is he? He's unjust. He's
hellbound. He's sin. He's death. He'll perish. Man without God, there's not
a just man on earth that sinneth not. But Noah was a just man,
but that's not the whole story. In Genesis chapter 6 and verse
8, what does it say about Noah? It says, but Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. No man can make himself just
before God. No man can make a sinner just
before God. but God can and does by His grace
through the Lord Jesus Christ. No man. Somebody says, well,
you know, that still is not fair for Nebuchadnezzar to do that. Listen on, look on, look at verse
10. He says, the Chaldeans answered
and before the king and they said, there's not a man upon
the earth that can show the king's matter. There's not a man on
earth, they're right. Therefore there's no king, lord,
nor ruler that asks such things at any magician or astrologer
or chaldean. You're being unfair, Nebuchadnezzar.
Verse 11, it's a rare thing that the king requires and there's
none other that can show it before the king except the gods. This
has to come from divine origin whose dwelling is not with flesh
For this cause the king was angry and very furious and commanded
to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. And the decree went
forth that the wise men should be slain. And they sought Daniel
and his fellows to be slain because Daniel was in that court. They're
gonna slay them all. The king's decree included Daniel
and his brethren. The king decreed that all who
cannot do what God alone can do and will, that they'll die. Now again, as I said, that seems
unfair, that seems unjust, but you need to consider something
here. And I thought about this. Every one of these false preachers,
they claimed to do, or to be able to do, what no man could
do. They claimed, they actually claimed
to do what God alone can do. That was the nature of their
dealings here. These astrologers, these magicians,
these sorcerers, these Chaldeans, these false preachers. Sometimes
they even called themselves diviners, which means somebody who can
manipulate divine things. And I thought about this in this
context. You know, I've heard preachers say this. in light
of what we know from the scriptures God requires for salvation. You
know, on the whole, most preachers who call themselves Christians
really scale down God's requirement all the time, don't they? Well,
God knows you're weak and He just feels sorry for you, and
if you'll just do a little part. If you... Christ did all He could
do, now the rest is up to you. And we come along and say, oh
no, God says He requires righteousness. Perfect satisfaction to God's
law and justice. God requires perfection in order
to be saved. And what's the first thing they
say? Well, no man can do that. I had a fella down in Albany
tell me that one day. He said, no man can do that. You're exactly
right, my friend. That's unfair, God requiring
what we can't do. Well, let me tell you something. How did, think about this, how
did man fall in the first place? You know what he did? You know
what we did in Adam when we fell? We boasted with Adam that we
had the right to do and the ability to do only things that God can
do. That started out with Satan.
Do you remember Isaiah chapter 14 and verse 12? Where he said,
I'll be like the most high, I'll ascend into the heavens. And
we followed Satan. In Genesis chapter 3 and verse
5, what did Satan tell Eve? He says, for God doth know that
in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be open and you
shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. That is determining
good and evil. What was man doing when he took
sides with Satan against God? He was claiming to do things,
to be able to do things that only God has the right to do
and the ability to do. And ever since, man has attempted
in his pride, in the realm of religion and salvation, to do
what only God can do. That is, work his way into righteousness,
work his way into forgiveness, work his way to heaven. And even against that, God is
merciful to a remnant. He sent his son into the world
to do for his people what he alone can and has done, to enable
God to be both a just God and a savior. to die an infinite
death on the cross of Calvary and establish an everlasting
righteousness of infinite value. Don't tell me God's unfair to
require of me what only He can do and what I cannot do because
in my father Adam and in my sinful pride I've been claiming all
my life to be able to do what only God can do. Will you claim
it? Let's see you do it. Can you
be saved by your works? That's an impossibility. What's
the decree of God on that? Those who come to him by their
work shall be damned. There's only one way of salvation,
and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. All these Chaldeans and magicians
and sorcerers are getting is just what they claim to be. You
claim to be able to divine? You claim to be able to do all
this stuff? Let's see you do it. God putting
man in his place. And so what does God do? Well,
this paves the way for Daniel, the man of God, to come on the
scene. Let me just read the passage and I'll close. And then we'll
come back and get, look here in verse 14, let's read it. Then
Daniel answered, now they're gonna come and get Daniel and
his friends too, because they were part of that court. But
now listen, then Daniel answered, with counsel and wisdom to Ariok,
the captain of the king's guard, which was gone forth to slay
the wise men of Babylon. He answered and said to Ariok,
the king's captain, why is the decree so hasty from the king?
Then Ariok made the thing known to Daniel. Then Daniel went in
and desired of the king that he would give him time and that
he would show the king the interpretation. Daniel was confident. And it
says, then Daniel went to his house and made the thing known
to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, that's Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego, his companions. And listen to verse 18. Mark
this in your Bibles. Now listen to what Daniel says
here. Made it known to his companions
that they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning
this secret. We don't need human ability here.
We don't need human power and human goodness here. We don't
need human wisdom. We don't need false preachers
and false gospels and works salvation and free will religion. We need
mercy from the living Lord. Daniel knew the source of all
knowledge of all deliverance. He knew how he could be delivered
from the king's decree, and that's through the mercy of the covenant
God. My friend, the only way that
we can be delivered from the king's decree, his just decree
of death and hell, is to seek his mercy in Christ. There's
no other way. And he says that Daniel and his
fellow should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. And then was the secret revealed
unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel, what did he do?
He blessed the God of heaven. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me thy great salvation so rich and so free. Verse 20, Daniel
answered and said, Blessed be the name of God. Listen to his
psalm of praise here. Oh, blessed be the name of God
forever and ever for wisdom and might are his. Not mine, I'm
not a diviner. I'm not your wisdom, God is.
And he changeth the times and the seasons. He's sovereign.
This is the sovereign God. He removeth kings and setteth
up kings. Old Nebuchadnezzar couldn't do
a thing. except God. Let him do it. And he giveth wisdom unto the
wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding. He revealeth
the deep and secret things. He knoweth what is in the darkness,
and the light dwelleth him. I thank thee and praise thee,
O thou God of my fathers. who has given me wisdom and might,
and has made known unto me now what we desire of thee, for thou
hast made known unto us the king's matter, the God of heaven. Daniel was a man of purpose.
He was a man of prophecy. He was a man of prayer. He was
a man of God. My friend, don't ever think that
God's unfair. to give a sinner what that sinner
wants. And it's only by the grace of
God that any of us want his mercy in Christ. Isn't that right? All right.